Your experiences - Questions from your pitches

[Mac H.]

A recent thread made me wonder - what questions have you been asked as a result of your pitches?

I'm not really interested in what we've learned are important issues indirectly - but what we've actually experienced ourselves.

eg: As I mentioned earlier, I've been asked about tone before - but never theme.

What I've been asked

• Tone/Genre/Style
• Filming Location (eg: Australia .v. Europe)
• Thoughts on Budget (Obviously not detail - just 'are we talking about a $200 million film here or a $2 million one')
• Rights

Obviously some of these are specific because I'm Aussie and one of the pitches was for a novel adaptation.

But rather than talk about what people are theoretically interested in, I'm curious to know about people's direct experiences.

eg: Despite the talk about the value of good writing, not a single sales agent I've spoken to has cared what writer is on a project. Obviously that isn't a general rule - other films have been funded because the name on the script gave the investors confidence - but it is my direct experience.

I know - all our experiences are anecdotal rather than rigorous data etc etc .

But I'm still interested in hearing from your experiences.

Mac

[NikeeGoddess]

why would someone ask you the "tone/genre/style" if you just pitched them your story? you should have conveyed all that in your pitch.


anyhoo- what i've been asked: "Who do you see playing this role?"
and for a tv series: "What do you see happening in season 2?"

[Chief]

Originally Posted by NikeeGoddess

why would someone ask you the "tone/genre/style" if you just pitched them your story? you should have conveyed all that in your pitch.


anyhoo- what i've been asked: "Who do you see playing this role?"
and for a tv series: "What do you see happening in season 2?"

I hope they ask me this question as I've prepared at least 5 'big' actors for each character in my script.

[Chief]

Tbh, I still don't know what a pitch is supposed to be. You just explaining your story? Can't you just send them a treatment/synopsis?

In my first pitches I'm coming in guns blazing. I'll bring statistics of similar films and how much money they brought in.

How much it could be made for.

What actors could play the different characters.

etc.

[NikeeGoddess]

Originally Posted by Chief

Tbh, I still don't know what a pitch is supposed to be. You just explaining your story? Can't you just send them a treatment/synopsis?

In my first pitches I'm coming in guns blazing. I'll bring statistics of similar films and how much money they brought in.

How much it could be made for.

What actors could play the different characters.

etc.

it's a face to face marketing meeting. sell your story like a used car salesman. you have to convince them that your piece of junk is worthy of their time and attention.

nope. not until they ask... and they won't ask until you've sold them on YOUR story.

[ChadStrohl]

Who could play the roles?

Is that a trick question?

Ummmm... Channing Tatum? And if it goes straight to SyFy, I'll say... Dean Cain?

[Mac H.]

Originally Posted by NikeeGoddess

why would someone ask you the "tone/genre/style" if you just pitched them your story? you should have conveyed all that in your pitch.

The obvious explanation, of course, is that I'm just bad at pitching.

To be fair, though, they didn't just ask 'What is the tone/genre/style ?' .. instead we had a followup chat about that area (mainly them pointing out problems!) - I just summarised a 5 minute conversation into a simple 'tone/genre/style' entry for simplicity.

Mac

[Chief]

Originally Posted by NikeeGoddess

it's a face to face marketing meeting. sell your story like a used car salesman. you have to convince them that your piece of junk is worthy of their time and attention.

nope. not until they ask... and they won't ask until you've sold them on YOUR story.

So the actual pitch is before they've read the script? What's the likelihood of them buying the script once they asked for a pitch?

I live in the UK and don't feel like going to LA just for a 5-minute pitch followed by a 'I'm sorry, but we're not interested.'

[goldmund]

Yes, this is something I don't understand, too.

Have the people in the meeting read the script?

[Why One]

My interpretation of that tone/genre/style question is: "Tell me an existing movie that it's similar to." In other words they can't quite place the vibe of your movie pitch.